Newsletter

July 2013

This month, for the first time in quite awhile, we will proceed without the services of our resident guru, Dean Hoffmann. Our meeting night falls on his and wife Jackie's wedding anniversary and showing his good sense he has chosen to spend it with her rather than with us. I'm sure you all will join me in wishing Dean and Jackie many happy returns. I don't know the number of the anniversary but it's got to be up there (Dean is older than he looks.... or acts). In his stead member Dave Glassman will give a talk on his recent Mount Everest Base Camp Trek seen through video and photos. He will be glad to talk about how to organize, edit, add voice over and adding music to the video. As a preview of some of the wonderful photography we will see take a look at the Photo of the Month at the end of this epistle.

Here is some info on the Apple Logo that I found interesting:

Apple's first logo featured Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. It looked like the cover of a seventh grade English textbook ? that is, a seventh grade English textbook that my great-grandmother might have used. Luckily, Steve Jobs and co. decided to go in a different direction soon after launching the company, hiring designer Rob Janoff to design a logo that would highlight Apple's unique appeal: color graphics.

The new rainbow-colored, apple-shaped logo did just that and went on to serve as a welcoming beacon as consumers tepidly entered the digital age. Remember the colorful Macs of the 1990s? They almost seemed to be screaming, "Don't be afraid ? we're friendly! We promise!"

As tech consumers evolved, so did Apple's logo. After the short-lived black apple iteration, the silver apple emerged, reflecting the ultimate Apple user experience: clean, smooth, and seamless. Today, for many consumers, the silver apple is synonymous with quality.

The door prizes for this month's meeting will be chosen from the following (not all will be awarded):

? Hard Drive Dock

? Portable External Hard Drive

? Speaker/Stand for iPad or iPhone or iPod

? NetPlug 200 (lets you use your house's wiring as an ethernet connection)

? Rechargeable Batteries and Charger

The usual rules apply; each paid membership will receive one raffle ticket but additional tickets can be purchased at the cost of $1 or 6/$5.Only one prize per membership still applies.

See you on Wednesday,

Pete

Below are some articles you may find of interest:

Browsers for Macintosh

After posting the article about the demise of Camino, I wondered how many browser options we still have beyond the big three.

Image Resizer Deluxe - Easy Way To Resize Photos For Email or Web MADE IN AMERICA Lifeware Solutions has rolled out a major update to Image Resizer Deluxe 1.1 for Mac. The application provides powerful tools to quickly resize and rename large numbers of photos to reduce their size, and make them ready to be sent over email or posted on the web.

improve your drawing skills using metrics to track progress. Think you can't draw? Peterson Hamilton thinks otherwise. The Toronto based designer and developer has created an iPad app that challenges the user using similar technique to learning how to write cursive so that anyone can hone their drawing skills. Drawing is a different way of thinking, that most people haven't refined, and aren't able to fully access. --

As we've said many times before, hacks and breakins will eventualy overtake the worst of the spam and phishing, leaving only the most irritating spam. This whole Iranian elections has become a cybercriminal's mecca (no pun intended) and is dominating the news channels on hacking. This week's Safenetting evils are :

If you happen to have Amazon ads on your web site, as we do, and you've been in the Affiliates program, then today's news may not come as a surprise. However, if you haven't been following the sales tax discussion, then you should be aware that today, Amazon announced Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, or Rhode Island ... along with California if their web tax law passes -- affiliates will

be cancelled. You're off.

This could add the largest US state to many smaller states that have now received similar letters -- and most importantly, Amazon has already begun the termination process for its North Carolina web publisher "associates." It seems likely that with the budget pressure in almost every U.S. state, the same language will still appear in many other states' budget bills without warning.

When California and Texas fall, Amazon will probably feel compelled to shut down the Associates Program all together. End of an era.

Letter from Amazon today:

"In addition, if at any time following your enrollment in the

Program you become a resident of Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, or Rhode Island, you will become ineligible

to participate in the Program, and this Operating Agreement will automatically terminate, on the date you establish residency in that state. In addition, you must promptly notify us in writing of your Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, or Rhode Island residency, which you may do via the Contact Associates Customer Service form available here."

More: Amazon is big loser in Web Tax Grab

At the federal level, Illinois' own Dick Durbin is leading a

national effort to change the way sales and local taxes are collected from online purchases. He's suggested a web of complicated regulations on small businesses, all in the name of "tax fairness." But back in Illinois, politicians have already tried to tap into the Internet tax